Scope of Work
A renovated brick house in Sea Gate, at the western tip of Coney Island in Brooklyn. Alex GC provided the custom aluminum windows and doors in the Alutech system, glazed with gray Solarban 60 glass. The openings range from tall, narrow windows set between the arches of the brick front to large fixed picture windows and pairs of glazed doors in the main room.
Custom Aluminum in the Alutech System
Alutech is a European system of thermally broken aluminum profiles. Every unit on this house was made to the size of its own opening, which matters on a renovation: the tall slots in the brick front, the wide picture openings and the door openings are all different, and none is a catalog size. Aluminum lets the large fixed lites be big without heavy frames, and the thermal break in the profile keeps the frame from carrying the cold inside. See how the system compares in Reynaers vs Alutech.
Gray Solarban 60 Glass
The glass is Solarban 60 on a gray tint. Solarban 60 is a solar-control low-E coating that reflects much of the sun's heat while letting daylight through. Putting it on gray glass adds two things. It cuts glare, which is useful in a house close to open water and sky, and from outside it gives the windows a darker, more private look by day, so the glass reads as a uniform dark surface against the pale brick. From inside, the view stays natural.
Big Openings in the Main Room
The main room is glazed on two sides: a large fixed picture window in a deep reveal, and two pairs of glazed doors that open the room to the outside. Against the polished floor the dark-framed openings bring the daylight well into the plan. One of the photographs shows a door on the day it was fitted, still in its factory protective wrap.
Photographs
Photographed in December 2022, as the interior was being finished.
Hopper Windows
Among the windows on this house are hopper windows: low, wide windows hinged at the bottom, whose sash tilts into the room at the top. A hopper lets air in high on the wall while the tilted sash sheds rain to the outside, which makes it the usual choice for a short opening where a window that swings or slides would not fit.
The photograph shows one from outside, in the same black aluminum as the other windows, set in the light brick under a metal head flashing. The small slots along the bottom of the frame are weep holes: water that gets into the frame drains out through them.
Similar Work and Related Specifications
Alutech aluminum systems · Aluminum windows · Low-E glass · Office News log for this address · 408 Lefferts Avenue: Alutech · 461 East New York Avenue: Alutech · Coleridge Street, Manhattan Beach
Planning Something Similar?
If you are renovating a house and want large aluminum windows and doors made to your openings, send us photographs and rough sizes. We will suggest the system and the glass and price the package.